We must not let our loyalties to groups, leaders, or friends pre-determine our conclusions

author : Max Brown topic : Olympia City Council | Procession of the Species

by Max Brown

Controversies and conflicts are important tests of principle. Nowhere is this more apparent than the polarization and scandal swirling around Eli Sterling, "founding father" of Olympia's Procession of the Species. As the City of Olympia announces that it may pursue criminal charges against Eli for procuring city funds under false pretenses, we are just beginning to find out details of this complicated, and ethically challenging, story.

Eli is liked and supported by many because of his role as "leader" for this funky and cool community arts event. While we may well be thankful to Eli for his leadership, the Procession is now supposed to be a community event and not the property of any one person. This means that monkey-business with the finances is a real disservice to all of us who have contributed in some way to this special event.

It is natural that people should associate the goodness of the Procession with Eli, and therefore have a positive feeling toward him personally. It is also natural, and almost inevitable, that some people show more leadership than others in community projects. Still, it would appear that most people who involve themselves with the Procession support post-Patriarchal values, consensus-based decision making process, and the importance of critical and independent thinking about the institutions that shape our lives. If we really want to practice these values, we can not let our loyalties to groups, leaders, or friends pre-determine our conclusions. Instead, we must break free from the limitations of "group-think" and "group-loyalty", and act according to our highest principles, principles which can include group solidarity, but must go beyond it also.

We really need to have much more information before we can begin to have informed opinions about what went wrong, and how we, as a community, want to respond. At a minimum, we need to know why the funds were secured in a less than fully honest manner, whether Eli operated with some sort of meaningful oversight, how these funds were actually spent, and what the Procession's commitment is now toward accountability to the community as a whole.

We need to think about, and apply, our principles - and we definitely need more information in order to do so.